England and Brazil to face off in friendly at Wembley in March
Brazil's Richarlison, right, is challenged by Venezuela's Jhon Chancellor during a qualifying soccer match for the FIFA World Cup 2026 at Arena Pantanal stadium in Cuiaba, Brazil, Thursday, Oct.12, 2023. Credit: AP/Andre Penner
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil's soccer confederation announced its national team will play a friendly against England at Wembley in March.
The contest will be England's first against a South American team in six years. The last time the two teams played in 2017, the match ended 0-0.
Brazil had already announced a friendly against Spain in March. South American national teams have long complained about the lack of a calendar to test themselves against European rivals.
“The objective is to always have Brazilian national team games against former world champions so we can have matches of a high technical level,” Ednaldo Rodrigues, the president of the country's soccer confederation, said in a statement on Monday.
Later in November, Brazil will play two tough rounds of World Cup qualifying — the first at Colombia and the second against defending champion Argentina at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
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